This chapter presents some commentaries on international cooperation, international permit trade, and technological change. It discusses the reasons why an international agreement is not needed for ...
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This chapter presents some commentaries on international cooperation, international permit trade, and technological change. It discusses the reasons why an international agreement is not needed for greenhouse gas emission abatement, examines how international permit trade equalizes marginal abatement costs, and presents some insights on technological change.Less

Economics versus Climate Change: A Comment

Richard S. J. Tol

Published in print: 2008-11-21

This chapter presents some commentaries on international cooperation, international permit trade, and technological change. It discusses the reasons why an international agreement is not needed for greenhouse gas emission abatement, examines how international permit trade equalizes marginal abatement costs, and presents some insights on technological change.

Debates over post-Kyoto Protocol climate change policy often take note of two issues: the feasibility and desirability of international cooperation on climate change policies, given the failure of ...
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Debates over post-Kyoto Protocol climate change policy often take note of two issues: the feasibility and desirability of international cooperation on climate change policies, given the failure of the United States to ratify Kyoto, and the very limited involvement of developing countries; and the optimal timing of climate policies. This book offers insights into both of these concerns. It first considers the appropriate institutions for effective international cooperation on climate change, proposing an alternative to the Kyoto arrangement and a theoretical framework for such a scheme. The discussions then turn to the stability of international environmental agreements, emphasizing the logic of coalition forming (including the applicability of game-theoretical analysis). Finally, chapters address both practical and quantitative aspects of policy design, offering theoretical analyses of such specific policy issues as intertemporal aspects of carbon trade and the optimal implementation of a sequestration policy and then using formal mathematical models to examine policies related to the rate of climate change, international trade and carbon leakage, and the shortcomings of the standard Global Warming Potential index.Less

The Design of Climate Policy

Published in print: 2008-11-21

Debates over post-Kyoto Protocol climate change policy often take note of two issues: the feasibility and desirability of international cooperation on climate change policies, given the failure of the United States to ratify Kyoto, and the very limited involvement of developing countries; and the optimal timing of climate policies. This book offers insights into both of these concerns. It first considers the appropriate institutions for effective international cooperation on climate change, proposing an alternative to the Kyoto arrangement and a theoretical framework for such a scheme. The discussions then turn to the stability of international environmental agreements, emphasizing the logic of coalition forming (including the applicability of game-theoretical analysis). Finally, chapters address both practical and quantitative aspects of policy design, offering theoretical analyses of such specific policy issues as intertemporal aspects of carbon trade and the optimal implementation of a sequestration policy and then using formal mathematical models to examine policies related to the rate of climate change, international trade and carbon leakage, and the shortcomings of the standard Global Warming Potential index.

This chapter discusses the aftermath of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It looks at how low-income-state consent was produced during the following years and how it transformed ...
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This chapter discusses the aftermath of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It looks at how low-income-state consent was produced during the following years and how it transformed into the current emissions reduction framework that is both highly inadequate and inequitable. It argues that consent was produced through three interlinked processes: material concessions, norm alignment, and structural conditioning. Material concessions, in particular, have resulted in few substantive gains for low-income states, but they have been instrumental in securing the stability of the climate regime in the face of an escalating crisis of international climate change leadership. Overall, this analysis provides insight into the processes by which international environmental inequality has been reproduced in contemporary international climate politics.Less

Manufacturing Consent

David CipletJ. Timmons RobertsMizan R. Khan

Published in print: 2015-10-12

This chapter discusses the aftermath of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It looks at how low-income-state consent was produced during the following years and how it transformed into the current emissions reduction framework that is both highly inadequate and inequitable. It argues that consent was produced through three interlinked processes: material concessions, norm alignment, and structural conditioning. Material concessions, in particular, have resulted in few substantive gains for low-income states, but they have been instrumental in securing the stability of the climate regime in the face of an escalating crisis of international climate change leadership. Overall, this analysis provides insight into the processes by which international environmental inequality has been reproduced in contemporary international climate politics.

This chapter explores the role of civil society in climate change politics, and argues that the literature on this topic has not fully accounted for the failure of civil society to influence ...
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This chapter explores the role of civil society in climate change politics, and argues that the literature on this topic has not fully accounted for the failure of civil society to influence mitigation action. It highlights three main deficits. First, despite the diversification of actors involved in the negotiations, resources and links to power still rest overwhelmingly in the hands of professionalized non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that take a more reformist and market-based approach. Second, civil society has failed to take a coordinated and viable strategy for building strength in domestic contexts to realize influence at key hinge moments in the international negotiations. And third, civil society has primarily devoted its attention at the international level to the UN climate processes, while often neglecting less accessible but highly relevant international governance frameworks, including international trade regimes, financial institutions, and scientific bodies.Less

Society Too Civil?

David CipletJ. Timmons RobertsMizan R. Khan

Published in print: 2015-10-12

This chapter explores the role of civil society in climate change politics, and argues that the literature on this topic has not fully accounted for the failure of civil society to influence mitigation action. It highlights three main deficits. First, despite the diversification of actors involved in the negotiations, resources and links to power still rest overwhelmingly in the hands of professionalized non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that take a more reformist and market-based approach. Second, civil society has failed to take a coordinated and viable strategy for building strength in domestic contexts to realize influence at key hinge moments in the international negotiations. And third, civil society has primarily devoted its attention at the international level to the UN climate processes, while often neglecting less accessible but highly relevant international governance frameworks, including international trade regimes, financial institutions, and scientific bodies.

This chapter summarizes the book's main arguments and considers how global climate justice might be achieved in the coming years. Given the need for independent actors whose focus is on the global ...
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This chapter summarizes the book's main arguments and considers how global climate justice might be achieved in the coming years. Given the need for independent actors whose focus is on the global public good of avoiding catastrophic climatic change, it argues that a transformed approach of civil society is our best hope for realizing an equitable, sustainable, and effective international climate treaty and advancing global climate justice. Revelations about the system's unsustainability will not occur—or lead to the radical change—unless political forces broadly mobilize to effectively counter the competing narratives and structural privileges of those who still benefit from the existing system. The chapter concludes by identifying three main shifts that transnational civil society will have to undergo in order to advance international climate justice, and introduces the concept of linking movements to specify necessary changes for the development of climate justice.Less

Linking Movements for Justice

David CipletJ. Timmons RobertsMizan R. Khan

Published in print: 2015-10-12

This chapter summarizes the book's main arguments and considers how global climate justice might be achieved in the coming years. Given the need for independent actors whose focus is on the global public good of avoiding catastrophic climatic change, it argues that a transformed approach of civil society is our best hope for realizing an equitable, sustainable, and effective international climate treaty and advancing global climate justice. Revelations about the system's unsustainability will not occur—or lead to the radical change—unless political forces broadly mobilize to effectively counter the competing narratives and structural privileges of those who still benefit from the existing system. The chapter concludes by identifying three main shifts that transnational civil society will have to undergo in order to advance international climate justice, and introduces the concept of linking movements to specify necessary changes for the development of climate justice.

This chapter examines the global climate regime, the idea of international environmental justice, and Critical Legal Studies (CLS) to assess the possibility of using international environmental laws ...
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This chapter examines the global climate regime, the idea of international environmental justice, and Critical Legal Studies (CLS) to assess the possibility of using international environmental laws to advance the ideals of justice expressed in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). First, it examines the development and application of international law in a climate change mitigation regime, considers how international environmental justice is conceptualized, and then applies lessons from CLS to assess the prospects of promoting justice.Less

Environmental (In)justice in Climate Change

Martin J. Adamian

Published in print: 2008-09-19

This chapter examines the global climate regime, the idea of international environmental justice, and Critical Legal Studies (CLS) to assess the possibility of using international environmental laws to advance the ideals of justice expressed in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). First, it examines the development and application of international law in a climate change mitigation regime, considers how international environmental justice is conceptualized, and then applies lessons from CLS to assess the prospects of promoting justice.

This chapter presents the economic arguments applied to the problem of climate change. It examines whether an international agreement is necessary to initiate action on climate change. It also ...
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This chapter presents the economic arguments applied to the problem of climate change. It examines whether an international agreement is necessary to initiate action on climate change. It also addresses whether international emissions trading or globally harmonized marginal abatement costs should be pursued as a policy goal. The chapter also discusses how domestic and international actions encourage long-term solutions for climate change.Less

Economics versus Climate Change

William A. Pizer

Published in print: 2008-11-21

This chapter presents the economic arguments applied to the problem of climate change. It examines whether an international agreement is necessary to initiate action on climate change. It also addresses whether international emissions trading or globally harmonized marginal abatement costs should be pursued as a policy goal. The chapter also discusses how domestic and international actions encourage long-term solutions for climate change.

This chapter focuses on the international negotiations on climate change under way since UNCED in 1992. Several governments began their consideration of reduced emissions of greenhouse gases in the ...
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This chapter focuses on the international negotiations on climate change under way since UNCED in 1992. Several governments began their consideration of reduced emissions of greenhouse gases in the 1980s; the world began in a formal way to address the issue in 1992. In that year, with the IPCC's first report in hand, delegates to UNCED in Rio decided that the scientific indications of possible harm were definite enough for countries to begin action under international treaties to limit the possibility of a damaging climate change. The chapter describes the history and content of the negotiations, including the Rio and Berlin meetings and the Kyoto Protocol. It discusses the difficult equity issues involved, continued resistance to the negotiations, the economic models on which much of this resistance is based, and some of the reasons why it is considered that the resistance was misplaced.Less

International Climate-Change Negotiations

John Firor

Published in print: 2002-08-11

This chapter focuses on the international negotiations on climate change under way since UNCED in 1992. Several governments began their consideration of reduced emissions of greenhouse gases in the 1980s; the world began in a formal way to address the issue in 1992. In that year, with the IPCC's first report in hand, delegates to UNCED in Rio decided that the scientific indications of possible harm were definite enough for countries to begin action under international treaties to limit the possibility of a damaging climate change. The chapter describes the history and content of the negotiations, including the Rio and Berlin meetings and the Kyoto Protocol. It discusses the difficult equity issues involved, continued resistance to the negotiations, the economic models on which much of this resistance is based, and some of the reasons why it is considered that the resistance was misplaced.

This chapter proposes two types of measures to enhance the success of international environmental agreements. The first measure is a series of transfer schemes and their effects on coalition ...
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This chapter proposes two types of measures to enhance the success of international environmental agreements. The first measure is a series of transfer schemes and their effects on coalition formation and stability based on an integrated assessment model with asymmetric players. The second measure is the institutional changes for ensuring stability of international environmental agreements.Less

Johan EyckmansMichael Finus

Published in print: 2008-11-21

This chapter proposes two types of measures to enhance the success of international environmental agreements. The first measure is a series of transfer schemes and their effects on coalition formation and stability based on an integrated assessment model with asymmetric players. The second measure is the institutional changes for ensuring stability of international environmental agreements.

This chapter assesses the economic incentives of different countries to cooperate on international climate negotiations, particularly on greenhouse gas emission control. It first examines the ...
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This chapter assesses the economic incentives of different countries to cooperate on international climate negotiations, particularly on greenhouse gas emission control. It first examines the indications that the noncooperative coalition theory provides for the analysis of climate negotiations. It then presents the FEEM-RICE model, a well-known integrated assessment tool for the study of climate change. This model is used to analyze the equilibrium coalition structure that could emerge out of climate negotiations.Less

Parallel Climate Blocs: Incentives to Cooperation in International Climate Negotiations

Barbara BuchnerCarlo Carraro

Published in print: 2008-11-21

This chapter assesses the economic incentives of different countries to cooperate on international climate negotiations, particularly on greenhouse gas emission control. It first examines the indications that the noncooperative coalition theory provides for the analysis of climate negotiations. It then presents the FEEM-RICE model, a well-known integrated assessment tool for the study of climate change. This model is used to analyze the equilibrium coalition structure that could emerge out of climate negotiations.